


Why him?

by AuthorInDistress



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Electrocution, Humiliation, Loki's only in the end, M/M, Short prompt request, Torture, Violence, character death but they come back, smothering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 13:27:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorInDistress/pseuds/AuthorInDistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>.</p><p>A request that asked for Tony being tortured in front of some team-mates because 'bad guys' want to hurt Loki through him. </p><p>And then for Loki to rescue him, revealing to Tony that he was who they wanted to hurt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why him?

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt. 
> 
> Inspired by 'The helpers'.
> 
> [It's a bit weird, by the way.]

.

There's a throb. Just in the back of his head. And it _aches_.

It fades, though, just a little. And it's then that Rhodey realizes that he's been unconscious, and is finally coming back around. That's never a good sign.

Everything is hazy. Muffled, almost, and he can't quite keep his eyes open. His hands itch, and his ankles rub together when he tries to stand up and when the sound of a chair creaking accompanies every grunt of his, he notices that he's tied down to a metal chair. Bolted to the floor, and hazy with drugs.

"Oh God ... " He starts violently at that whisper - _he's not alone_ \- and turns his head to the left, with more effort than should be fucking needed, to see his companion. Clint. _Clint_ \- of course, they'd been out yesterday. Hadn't they? The only ones who had been willing to let Tony drag them around the city for a good night out, before they'd -

Before. Before, what? He doesn't remember. _Fuck_. He doesn't remember. And as he's the only one who had had only the one glass instead of several, he's pretty sure that it's not because of the drinking.

"Rhodes?"

"I'm here, man." God, his throat is parched.

"Wher - ? Are we drugged?" That was quick. Well. He is an agent, "Fuck. I swear we're jinxed, or something - "

A groan in front of them seems to only make Rhodey flinch in surprise, as Clint simply calmly turns toward it, "Mm ... God, what happened? Did we get kinky last night, or something?"

Blinking three times, Rhodey's vision clears just a little more to see a table in the room they're tied in, with Tony lying on top of it; his hands and ankles bound and stretched until he's as straight as a needle, "I'm not amused here guys, untie me."

"Didn't tie you up in the first place, Tone." Rhodey tells him; his vision finally clearing a little more but everything is still woozy.

"We're a little stuck ourselves too." Clint supplies, wincing at the ache that he must have in his head too, and struggling against his ties even though he _must_ be feeling as weak as Rhodey. Tony jerks on his binds, as well, on the table, turning his head around to look at them and sighing when he finally clocks onto what's happening here.

"Oh for _fuck's_ sake. Who'd you piss off this time, Barton?"

"Me? You're the obnoxious celeb out of all of us. Every time _I'm_ stuck somewhere it's only because I've been hauling - "

A door to the left of the table opens with a bang, and Tony whips his head around to look at whoever comes out of it. Three men step forward in almost synchronized steps, fanning out until one stands at the foot of the table and the other two stand just a meter away from both Clint and Rhodey. They're big, all three of them. Muscular, tall. They don't look human to him, but then again, he's not exactly the expert on all things that aren't.

"Can we help you, gentlemen?" Tony asks them, sweetly, "If you're looking for an autograph, there's a pen in my - " A gunshot echoes in the room and Tony flinches when splinters from the table spray out over his face. He stares up at the shooter, his joking facade gone. "Uh ... I'll take that as a polite _no_ then, shall I." Well, not entirely.

"What do you want with us?" Clint asks, getting to business.

The shooter looks at him, leaning back and sitting just by Tony's bound feet, resting on the table, "Barton. Isn't it?" Clint doesn't answer, "Don't worry about what we _want_ , it isn't going to involve either of you much. You and ... Mr Rhodes here, that is." Rhodey meets Tony's gaze at that, holding it until their attention is taken again, "No. What we're doing is hurting an enemy of ours. By hurting the one thing he cares about. Simple." Looking down at Tony, he smiles, and tucks the gun into the pocket of his red checkered shirt, "It being _Tony Stark_ , is just an added bonus really. It means we can _enjoy_ this too."

"You don't get a lot of sex, do you." Tony sneers, raising an eyebrow, before his head is snapped to one side by a backhand.

"Hey!" Rhodey lunges forward, or tries to, and his arms strain but he doesn't do much else. Dammit. Tony just turns his head back, however, and ignores the reddened mark on the side of his mouth.

"It's fine Rhodey. You can be the first to attest, _hundreds_ have done that to me, and _worse_." Smiling at his attacker, Tony informs him that, "You're doing this wrong, buddy. Trust me." But instead of making him angry, like he knows Tony is trying to as he usually does, the guy just smiles back at him and looks at one of his buddies.

"Hey, Mark. Get the torch." Tony turns his head to look at 'Mark', watching as he walks around the room to a bunch of boxes in the corner and pulls out a small blow-torch.

"This one, Chris?" They're saying their names on purpose. They don't care that they know who they are.

Tony clenches his fists in the binds at the sight, biting down on his lips to stop himself from saying anything stupid, "Oh, don't look so scared, Stark." Chris grins, patting his cheek, and laughing when he flinches at the touch, "It's not for you."

"Thought you said we weren't going to be involved." Clint spits at him, his eyes on Tony.

"Yeah I did. And I said 'much', too."

Rhodey growls at him, gritting his teeth when they come near him first with the blow-torch, and he looks at Tony on automatic as well; seeing the worry in his eyes as his face is pushed down by Chris - made to watch it. "It's okay Tone." He says, breathing hard to brace himself, "The Avengers'll be looking for you. They'll be here, they'll come for you, and - _ah_." He tries to hold it back, God he does, but the _burn_ of that fire against his leg, it -

The torch is moved but all he can look at is Tony, watching as he stares wide-eyed at what it's doing to Rhodey's skin.

"Don't." Tony doesn't look away from Rhodey when he finally speaks, and Rhodey wants to tell him 'no', but he can't even make words out of the curses flying out of his mouth, "Don't, do it to me." Rhodey yells at the fire when its jammed into him again. "Stop it, he's not even an Avenger, okay! He's not the one you want, he's - "

Strands of hair are yanked out of Tony's scalp when Chris uses them to pull his head back, "And how the fuck do _you_ know what we want?" He shakes Tony's head with the grip he has on his hair, anger coming out of nowhere. The torch leaves Rhodey now and he pants in relief, staring at Tony as they put it over Clint instead, " _Huh?_ "

Tony tries to look away, the proximity too much and the shouting causes him to push his head back over the table, " _How do you think you know, then?_ Tell me!"

"Okay, I don't!" Tony shouts back, "I don't - "

"What _do_ you want from us, you fu - ?!" Clint bites back a yell when the torch is pressed into his skin again, but the smell and heat of the burning flesh is enough to almost make him retch anyway.

Tony writhes on the table then, desperately trying to get free to help them, "Stop it!"

Clint screams his own obscenities at Mark as he holds his fist over the naked flame, until his throat is hoarse from it all.

"What I want Barton? Want, right now?" Chris shouts over all the yelling, laughing. Tony joins in with Clint's swearing, threatening wonders on all three of them, but - "What I want right now, is for _Stark_ to fucking shut-the-hell- _up_." Nodding over at the other guy, he gestures, "Would you mind?"

Tony jerks, shaking his head to elude his hands but the third guy grabs it easily anyway and clamps his jaw shut with both. He still screams, yelling behind it angrily, murderously. "I can still hear him, Jake. Shut him up, better, will you."

Jake hits Tony across the face but it does nothing. "What do you want me to do, _sit_ on him?"

"Yeah actually," Mark snorts at the answer, leaping back when Clint tries to slam his head backward into his chest, "Ooh, nice try, Barton." He gives, before looking back at Jake, "Why not? Humiliation right. That's next on the agenda, isn't it?"

Tony bucks, his back coming off of the table though his arms and legs are forced to stay down, and Jake slaps him again, hard, with the hand that he had over his mouth before turning and standing over his face. Tony twists his head around, but it's only brought back by his hair and then Jake sits. His hands clench and unclench in their binds and Mark finally steps back with the torch, ruffling Clint's hair almost fondly when he doesn't move in his binds.

Rhodey is breathing heavily himself, his lips bleeding from how hard he's bitten into them, and he tries not to panic about the fact that Barton has been rendered unconscious by how harsh they were on him; by far, much worse than his own treatment.

Tony's hands bang against the table when he tries hard to lift them and the shaking in his legs tells him that - "He can't breathe!" Jake stands immediately, grinning, and Tony sucks in a desperate breath, before he's smothered again. "Fuck - " Rhodey strains on his arms before collapsing at the pain it causes him, "I'm gonna kill you all, you bastards. I'm - " Mark kicks his shoes off - strips his socks down, shoving one into Rhodey's mouth.

"Put a sock in it, Rhodes." And apparently, that's fucking hilarious.

Tony chokes on his breath when he's allowed to breathe again and turns his face away, wheezing, his hands shaking in their binds. Rhodey breathes loudly himself, through his nose as he watches, glaring for all it's going to do. Which is nothing, really, because he's not even noticed anymore.

Chris takes Tony's face, practically covering it with his entire hand as he turns it back around, and he then presses his cheeks together hard enough to make Tony squeeze his eyes shut, "Enjoying the show, Stark?"

His face released, Tony stares up at him, "Fuck you." He mutters shakily, his voice dark. Raspy.

Chris laughs. Really laughs, like Tony's his favorite stand-up comedian, or something. And it's the laughter that's getting to him really. They've all been through torture, but this? What these guys are doing. It's like something they're _used_ to doing, something normal. A fucking _hobby_ , even, Jesus.

"Fuck me?" Chris asks, his face split into a grin, before suddenly swinging his fist around and punching Tony in the stomach. The way he's been stretched by his binds already must hurt anyway, so to be _hit_ there - Tony screams, "Do you want to rephrase that?"

"Yes - " Tony gasps, swallowing twice to speak, "Fuck - _you_ \- _and_ \- your friends."

Jake sits by Tony's head, playing with a strand of his hair, "I don't think he has any manners, Chris." He sighs. "So can we kill him yet?"

Leaning back, with a shrug, Chris just nods, "Sure." What? No. No, they _can't_ -

 _No._ Rhodey's chair rattles with the force of his renewed struggles and next to him - _No! Get away from him_ \- he can see Clint slowly rousing in the corner of his eye. He yells behind the gag and Clint has a sock shoved in too before he can even speak. "Blindfolds?" Mark asks, just as Jake pours a cold bucket of water over Tony; making him splutter and choke over the now wet table, blinking water out of his eyes.

"Nah. Make 'em watch."

Tony struggles harder now, before his jaw is pulled open and a metal bar is pressed inside. "You might wanna bite down on this, Stark." He gags, spitting it out at them and cursing, but Chris stops it from being put back in.

"Leave it. Doesn't matter. We'll just clean up it all up afterward." Rhodey'll kill them. He will. He'll hurt them for this.

Jake makes a face at the answer but doesn't argue, and without warning just reaches over the other side of the table and jams a wire into Tony's leg. Like he's _bored_ to be made to do it. "N - !" The effect is instantaneous and the spark of buzzing electricity is what leads Rhodey to screaming behind the sock, as he watches Tony's body convulse over the wood - his eyes as wide as his mouth with a silent scream that refuses to come out. The wire is yanked back for just a second, before it's then shoved against Tony's chest this time and his back lifts off of the table as he tries to get away - "A - A - " - from the force of the electricity surging through him.

His fingers and toes spread, stretch, and curl, and when blood spills from his mouth along with some froth, Clint's chair actually _rocks_ back at the strength behind his attempts to get out. The wire is pressed for a third time, and Rhodey's begging now, behind the gag, because _God_ they're _killing_ him. They -

Tony spasms violently, and there's an audible crack when he bites down too hard and his teeth can't handle it. He shakes and the wood creaks under him, the water glistening beside the blood.

The fourth time kills him. It's so obvious that it has that Rhodey can't even look. He _can't_. Can't, but he still does.

Jesus, _Jesus_. No.

Clint doesn't react to it. Not like Rhodey does. Not like Rhodey swears, and screams and _sobs_ behind the sock in his mouth. Jake puts the wire back, hooking it up to whatever there is next to the table, and Tony's body slumps when the electricity leaves it.

No. God, _no_.

 _Tony_ ...

"Clean him up." Chris mutters distastefully, and Jake uses the sleeve of his hoodie to wipe the blood from Tony's eyes and mouth, tapping them both shut. " _Relax._ " He then tells them both, smiling, "I can bring him _back_ , don't worry."

Back? What - ?

"Watch. It's pretty cool, actually."

Jake takes a syringe from Chris and methodically injects Tony's now-limp arm with something pale, and thin, stepping back with a smirk; winking at Clint when he notices his eyes fixed on it, "Special mixture, Barton. SHIELD can't touch, I'm afraid."

 _SHIELD_. They know about - who the hell are these guys.

After about a second, lying on the table, Tony sucks in an impossible breath, his eyes flying open as he shudders and jerks, " _Dah_ \- !" Every limp trembles with adrenaline as he looks around, taking in what has happened here and remembering the last of what just _had_. "Wh - " He coughs, spitting out blood, moaning and shaking.

"I told you to clean him up." Chris glares at Jake, but evidently, that's all the blood left anyway, and Tony gasps in the air as he stares at the ceiling; clearly well aware that he had just been dead. Very, very _dead_.

"You okay, Stark?" He doesn't say a word, doesn't look at them. "Oh look at that. He's learning."

Tony continues to stare at the ceiling, ignoring the laughter, and pressing his lips together as he struggles not to hyperventilate. Rhodey clenches his own jaw, breathing heavily and wishing so badly that he could be out of this binds just so he could break each and every one of their necks.

"Okay. Well. Looks like we're running out of time now," Chris then lets them know, and God - what does that mean for them? "Took too long with the beginning part I guess, but uh, we've gotta go soon. Big guy's probably going to be knocking, and we want him to see the present we're going to leave for him." He rubs at the back of his neck, as though in regret, "I mean. It's nothing personal Stark. He killed one of ours, so ... we're going to kill you. Only thing we know he likes, and it took _forever_ to work that out, believe you me. Kinda why we've been taking our time killing you, actually. You know. As a reward."

Clint jerks his shoulders in his binds, and Rhodey joins him in the attempt to get free; both wanting to ask _who_ this is all for, and why it had to be Tony.

Tony whimpers once - can't hold it back - and he bites down on the inside of his cheek. Still staring up at the ceiling. "Not even going to ask 'who', huh? Oh well." Chris sighs, looking behind him at Mark, "Go tell the boys to start the car. This time's going to be permanent so forget the formula. I mean - " He snorts, "I don't know if that solution can bring him back when he's torn in _half_ , do you?"

There's a second before - it clicks.

Oh _God_.

Tony works it out as soon as Rhodey does and he snaps his head up to look at his binds, watching as a window is opened behind him to let the light in and let the chains out, and a door pulled open just before him too - the chains leading out that way as well. "No. No, no, no - _fuck_! Don't! Not that, please - don't!" A car revs outside, "God!" Tony yanks on the binds, screaming loud and long before it's even started at the fear of what's about to happen. "Stop!"

And then he screams much louder when he's actually pulled off of the table as the chains on his hands and feet are pulled. " _No - !_ "

Jake jumps stupidly on his feet, watching it all with a huge smile on his face as Tony is pulled from both directions by the cars on each side, slowly crawling forward while he screams at the pain it's giving him. " _Help!_ Someone - !"

Rhodey shuts his eyes. Asking for help. He's never - _Goddammit!_

Another rev and Tony yells out, his body writhing in the air and bones pop in his knees. " _Ah!_ Please! _Shoot_ me, just - I can't - !"

Chris gestures out the window, and just like that, the teasing is over. He's given the order, they've all seen it. They're going to drive for real now. Fuck. Rhodey opens his eyes, forces himself to watch. For Tony. The cars wheels screech, outside, and he braces himself for what he's about to see, but then -

But then there's this whipping sound instead, and the chains holding Tony's hands slide through the window, making his front half slam back onto the table. He hits his head, panting so hard they can all see his chest move with each breath.

"What the hell - ?" Chris starts to ask, just as Jake and Mark run out the door as this is clearly not part of the plan, but the other driver has obviously not gotten the memo yet because he still accelerates forward. Dragging the rest of the chains with him. Tony shouts when his feet are yanked on, pulled on, and Rhodey screams out for him before he disappears through the door in just under two seconds.

But then _those_ chains are dropped too and Tony rolls in their view, once, twice, before landing on the sand outside; curled up but breathing. _Breathing._ And not torn in half.

Oh. Oh, thank God.

Chris spins around, running toward the door to see what's going on, "Hey Kaitlyn! What the hell are you - ?"

Blood suddenly splatters all over Clint when he then staggers back with a knife in his head, and that alone should be shocking but after today, it doesn't gain much more than an inward applaud.

That is, until Rhodey realizes that might mean 'big guy' is here.

.

* * *

.

 

Tony swallows and gasps on the ground, his body aching but right now he's more thankful that he's alive.

And then he hears footsteps.

He freezes, fear like nothing he's felt enveloping him and he shuts his eyes, waiting for more of whatever these men can dish out on him. He can take it. He can.

They aren't going to kill him, if they were they would have already done so, with this. They're just trying to scare him, make a statement, he's -

A hand clasps his chin and turns his head, tilting it up. He opens his eyes, a glare ready and a threat on his tongue, until he sees just who it _is_ crouched just in front of him. And then he doesn't move at all.

"Always getting into trouble, I see." Loki observes, his eyes flickering over the wounds on Tony's person. "Pity there were only five of them. I would have liked to have killed more."

"Um." Is all Tony really thinks of, but from all the screaming, he barely manages to say that as well. Loki looks at him, both hard and soft all at once, as though that's even possible, before standing.

"I was never here." He tells him. No. More, orders him. Before, turning and walking away.

"Wait." He stops. But doesn't look back. "I - Were you the one who - they - ?" He coughs behind his still bound hands, staring at him. "Is it - it's you. Isn't it. You're - the one they - they wanted to - hurt."

There's a long pause, before a whir in the distance signifies that Rhodey was right and the Avengers were looking. "I was never here." Loki only repeats, then, before disappearing.

And Rhodey finds him like that, staring into the sand where Loki had been standing before, and when he's helped to his feet and untied, he can't help but wonder _why_.

Why him?

**Author's Note:**

> .
> 
> So I'm sorry that this is so shit :/ I tried to do right by the prompt, ticking all the boxes, as it's sat on my list for so long but I failed :(


End file.
